


A Business Arrangement

by sunkelles



Series: Femslash February 2017 [2]
Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Black Sun Member Ketsu, F/F, Femslash February, Imperial AU, Imperial Sabine Wren, Sorry guys, The Mandalorian Lesbians, lots of mentions of sex but no actual sex, there are more feelings involved than either of them wants to admit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-03
Updated: 2017-02-03
Packaged: 2018-09-21 01:45:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9526385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunkelles/pseuds/sunkelles
Summary: In another world, Sabine Wren is an imperial officer and Ketsu Onyo is her informant.





	

**Author's Note:**

> so i wrote this at the beginning of january, before the trials of the darksaber had even aired. i just watched that ep, and it's  
> definitely not compliant. looking at it through the lens of that ep existing, i'm not sure i would still write this fic after watching it. 
> 
> oh well, it exists. hope you guys still enjoy it.

Ketsu’s not sure how she got into this situation, to be honest. She’s in prison in a tiny, backwater town, in a tiny backwater prison, in a backwater system. Ugh, someone higher up at Black Sun should have picked her up by now. She’s a valuable member of the organization, damn it. She shouldn’t be left to rot.

Ketsu hears the door open, and turns around abruptly. Lieutenant Admiral Sabine Wren stands in the doorway.

 

"Sabine!"

"Onyo," she says, gesturing for Ketsu to follow her out the cell door. Oh, Ketsu realizes exactly how this meeting will go.

"Thought you'd be happy to see me," Ketsu says, as they walk through the tiny police station.

"I might be, if you hadn't managed to get yourself locked in prison on a planet in the _Outer_ Outer Rim," Sabine hisses. Ketsu shrugs. It was Sabine’s choice to rescue her. She works for Black Sun. Eventually, the idiots would have gotten her out. Sabine’s imperial connections just worked a little faster.

"Do you know what I had to do to bail you out?" Sabine says. She crosses her arms, and stops in the middle of the door out of the police station.

"Leave your Star Destroyer for a day or too," Ketsu says, "honestly, Bine. It ain't that big of a deal.”

"Thrawn thinks you've become a liability," Sabine says gravely. Ketsu tries not to worry that Sabine's boss, an _Admiral_ in the Imperial Navy, has taken interest in her. Ketsu doesn't want Sabine to know she's worried, though. That would give the woman too much satisfaction.

"You could take that stick out of your ass for a bit, Bine," Ketsu says. Sabine huffs as she starts walking again, basking in the bright sunlight of a desert planet. She walks briskly, and Ketsu can see it will only take a minute to get to her ship.

"Maybe you should get one," Sabine quips, "then maybe you wouldn't be stuck working for Black Sun." Sabine knows that it's not a good insult. That has been Ketsu's goal since before she left the Academy. At one point, that had been Sabine's goal as well.

"You're an Imp," Ketsu says, "you don't get to judge me."

"You work for slavers," Sabine says, "you can't judge me."

"Like the Empire doesn't turn a blind eye to our less savory operations," Ketsu says. Sabine shrugs, like it means nothing. To the idealistic girl Ketsu met years ago, that would have meant everything.

"We going to your quarters?" Ketsu asks, as they cross the threshold of Sabine’s ship.

"Only if you have information," Sabine says, "if not, then you're free to leave." Ketsu sighs.

"You know, back in the day we could have sex just because," Ketsu says, "you were more romantic back then."

"You were less of a pain, back then," Sabine quips. Then, she stops in front of a door, and opens it up. Ketsu steps inside her quarters, and sees that the walls are coated in different art projects Sabine has done in many different media.

“You’re still making art, I see,” Ketsu says.

“Some things always stay the same,” Sabine says, gesturing to her bed.

“Thought Thrawn would have got you to stop that, eventually,” Ketsu says. Sabine actually laughs at that.

“You don’t know him at all, then” she says. “The Admiral likes art as much as I do.” Ketsu’s never felt safe broaching the topic of the SO that got Sabine to stay in the Empire, but she will take whatever information Sabine will give her. She never quite understood what changed her mind.

“There’s a reason I follow him,” she says. Cryptic as ever, Ketsu supposes.

“Now for the information,” Sabine demands. Ketsu sighs, but she doesn’t protest. She knows how the rest of the night will go. There will only be sex until she’s given away every bit of information Sabine can milk from her.

 

She rambles off all the relevant information she can remember.

 

"That it?" Sabine asks.

"Yeah," Ketsu says, "that was enough to fill a Sarlacc Pit, Bine."

"Not sure it was worth bailing you out of jail for," Sabine teases.

"Guess I'll have to make up the difference," Ketsu drawls, pulling Sabine into a kiss. Sabine kisses back.

"Ugh," Ketsu says, "Bine, you gotta lighten up a little. You're even stiff in the bedroom now, you know that?" Ketsu shifts slightly, and lies her head down on Sabine's stuff tummy. Stiff tummy, stiff arms, stiff heart: all of her has gone stiff and stuffy since she decided to stay with the Empire.

Whatever Thrawne told her when he took her under his wing changed her. She went from a cadet on the cusp of rebellion to a loyal imperial officer.

"You keep coming back," Sabine points out. Ketsu laughs a little bitterly to herself. She's right, as always. She's not the same, but she's still Sabine. She's still got that idealist's spirit, her quarters are always still coated in art, and she still blows shit up whenever she can. She still flirts the same way she used to, even though her hair's not colored anymore and she sings the empire's praises instead of the rebellion's.

 

But that? That's all sentimental garbage. They're practical women, the both of them, and Ketsu won't say that shit out loud.  

 

"Warming an Imperial Officer's bed has its perks," she says instead. She looks down at Sabine's light legs. They're covered in all the tattoos she can't have in other places due to imperial dress regulations. Mando’a words, little designs, scenes from her life, and even imperial cogs dance around her legs. Ketsu sort of wants to trace them, but decides that would be too intimate.

Sabine laughs.

"Is that all it is to you, sex and status?" she asks. Ketsu can’t read her well enough to guess at the tone. It might be dismissive, it might be sad. She honestly can’t tell.

"I give you information, you give me protection," Ketsu says, "doesn't have to be more." It can't be, not really. An informant and an officer, a member of a crime syndicate and an imperial.

 

In another world, they could have been more. Could have been partners, the way Ketsu had originally planned. Maybe even wives someday. But, Ketsu supposes, they could have ended up worse off too. They'll never know what could have been. They'll only know what they have: a business arrangement with some sex thrown in. Ketsu supposes she'll have to make do.


End file.
